Category: Traffic congestion

In response to guest columnist Gage Stowe [“A Seattle newbie asks: Why did you let traffic get this bad?” Opinion, Dec. 29], this is why traffic is out of control. Short-sighted voting by the Seattle electorate in past decades: For example, in the late 1960s, we could have had $500 million from the feds…

The question “why is it so bad?” is easy to answer but hard to fix [“I-405 misery: 2 megaprojects could tackle chronic delays,” Local News, Dec. 21]. Politics: The problem with this state is its division of need. Eastern Washington could not, wrongfully, care less about Western Washington’s needs. The intrastate commerce is at…

In regard to “Regional commute times worsen” [Local News, Oct 20], there is one, maybe only one, measure that far-sighted planners interested in truly alleviating the problem of impending grid lock might take: Continue theHighway 99 tunnel project, but stop the removal of the viaduct and rebuild or retrofit what remains. During the planning…

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute rates Seattle’s gridlock at six hours per day, with delays costing trucking $546,000,000 per year [“Should voters invest in roads, transit?” Opinion, March 30]. For each of our personal vehicles, it cited $1,519 of congestion cost by 2006. Meanwhile, we add almost 40,000 residents per year.

The main alternative is transit. Metro has 400,000 boardings daily. In contrast, Interstate 5 moves only 207,000 vehicles daily at Seneca, Highway 99 moves 60,000 north of the West Seattle Bridge and Interstate 90 handles just 145,000 east of Interstate 405.

There is no cheap solution when congestion costs for just trucking equal taxes spent for the entire Metro operations budget. Rides on Metro almost exactly match the cited number of vehicles on I-5, I-90 and Highway 99 combined. How many of those 118 million annual riders can we force into cars as worsening congestion already costs each driver $1,500 dollars per year and costs trucking over half a billion?

Proposition 1 is cheap by comparison and vital to our roads and economy.

Brian Sherlock, Shoreline

Better transportation for underserved communities

I disagree with guest columnist Bill Eager’s characterization of our transportation system in King County. Public spending on

City needs mass-transit system The recent article on cars apparently deals with only Seattle proper, ignoring the huge amount of daily auto traffic to and from the surrounding cities. [“Cars losing grip on Seattle,” page one, Sept. 25.] The terrible traffic conditions in Seattle are not caused by people who live and work here. Of note, also,…

Coal trains will be inconvenience “ ‘Green’ strategists now back coal trains” [page one, Feb. 26] reveals that a great deal of money is being spent by proponents of coal-unit trains and terminals in Western Washington. This is discouraging and irritating. Since the proposal was introduced, we have heard a lot about environmental effects, health and…

Roads shouldn’t be governed by survival of the fittest I heartily disagree with the state Court of Appeals and The Seattle Times [“Court right to reject Seattle traffic law,” Opinion, editorial, Aug. 21] that a traffic infraction cannot turn into a crime. It seems to me that turning illegally into the path of an oncoming vehicle —…

What gets a city employee fired? The Seattle Times article about incompetence in city government [“The street crews that couldn’t pour straight,” page one, July 17] reminds me of why we need daily newspapers to serve as professional watchdogs. It also brought to mind The Seattle Times article from some years ago about the city employee…

Crunican doesn’t compare to previous city engineers The Times article on street crews [“Curb crew blunders mean heat for Nickels,” page one, July 14] reported, “Drago has been a reliable Crunican supporter and credited her Monday with outshining her predecessors on big projects.” A more ridiculous and utterly stupid assertion is hard to imagine. No professional engineer in…

Resignations should come over $40k bonus The Seattle Times informed the public of Mayor Greg Nickels inappropriately paying a bonus to Seattle City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco. When the city cannot balance its budget and the superintendent allowed City Light to have a $90 million budget gap, there isn’t an acceptable reason to have paid Carrasco…

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